I want God to ignite my words with a match made in Heaven so that they burn in the heart of everyone who reads them or hears them, making them a furnace that spreads God’s warmth and light around the world.

Christians often meet like robots–tightly programmed and controlled. Christians need to be allowed to freely express Christ, not just to contain Him locked down in their hearts. After all, it’s hard to be a passive lump on a church pew when Christ’s fire is blazing in your soul.

Most churches do what they do with human effort. They don’t give the Lord a chance to reveal His supernatural power. The living Jesus wants to snatch church services from the clutches of well organized routine. When Christ lights people up on the inside, they need to be allowed to share their fresh insight with others.

Church is like a radio station that only plays one artist over and over again. Christians are the pages of a book, but church only hears from the pastor page. Church always gives people “a talking to” but sometimes they need to be listened to. 1 Corinthians 14:26

Church often seems like milk: pastorized, sermonized, organized, & institutionalized until we’ve forgotten how to hear and obey Jesus. Perhaps pastorization has crippled Christians by teaching them that a preacher is responsible for their spiritual growth. However, you don’t need someone to continually lecture you about how to follow a guide. You just follow the guide. The Holy Spirit is your Guide, not a preacher!

Many people find church as boring as watching grass grow. But they would find the risen Jesus thrilling, if only we would let them see Him!

It’s more effective to let light shine than it is to give a weekly lecture about light. According to Revelation 1, Christians are to assemble as a “lampstand” and let Jesus move among them–not as an audience.

When you have phone service, you don’t need a weekly lecture about it. You just go and flow with it. (Same with Jesus.) If you stay continually connected to Jesus, He will download His apps on your heart & transform the way you think, speak, and act.

The New Testament identifies Christians as those “led by the Spirit,” not as those led by a man, a program, or an organization. (Rom. 8:14) Spiritual authority is based on surrender to the living Jesus; not on titles, position, or office. Open sharing let’s the Holy Spirit speak through anybody present, not just the preacher.

All Christ-followers are called to preach; however most of them are not allowed to preach in church. Women in “the ministry”? Yes! All Christ-followers are called to do the work of the ministry. (See Ephesians 4:12)

So many churches are using the institutional word “campus” to describe themselves. What happened to being the family of God? Did Jesus ever say, “Upon this rock I will build My campus”? The Bible never said, “Christ is the head of the campus, his body.” Make church ekklesia again!

Christianity isn’t about obeying outward laws. It’s about surrendering to the inward Jesus and letting His presence transform you. A mind can memorize theology, but it takes an open heart to surrender to Jesus. Prechurch Christianity was about the risen Jesus living in and through ordinary people–not about formalized meetings and programs. Prechurch Christianity met in homes, using the participatory meeting style of the ancient Greek city council (ekklesia).

Many people are not familiar enough with the Bible to know the difference between truth and error. Evil doesn’t mean that God is absent from the world. It means that God is not fully present in us human beings. Whatever restricts or hinders the Holy Spirit’s working is not from God.

Church gathers for a sermon. I want to gather with others to directly encounter and interact with the living Jesus together!

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About Steve Simms

I like to look and think outside the box. In college I encountered Jesus Christ and I have been passionate about trying to get to know Him better ever since. My wife and I co-lead a non-traditional expression of the body of Christ in Nashville based on open participation and Spirit-led sharing. We long to see the power and passion of the first Christ-followers come to life in our time. I have written a book about our experiences called, "Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible--Ekklesia" that is available in Kindle & paperback @ http://amzn.to/2nCr5dP